More and more I'm starting up
conversations about 'being European'. It's a damn hard subject, but
still the word is used a thousand
times a day as if it's the most natural
thing in the world. Imagine that we
would stick the label 'European' on
MIM magazine - which will happen what would change then? A bit of a
loss of identity? Stop being Belgian?
The president of the European Commission made a particular remark
on 'identity': 'It's a dangerous word
because it's often opposed to the
identity of others. That's why we also
strive for several identities within the
EU and combine them with culture,
because culture comes before economy on my list of values.'
Barroso is a European idealist and
so am I. In politic circles most people
say: 'Being European equals equality,
freedom, democracy and pursuit of
unity.' Not a single word has been
mentioned then about the christianhumanistic origin of Europe. And
during the discussion about Turkey's
entry and about 'what means being
not-European' all stops were pulled
out. I'll spare you the list.

WWW.MIMMAGAZINE.EU

When I'm talking about the European
Meetings Industry - a fairly unknown territory - I tend to add a few
concepts to the deﬁnition of being
European. A European should speak
at least three languages: his mother
tongue, an international language
and any other European language as
desired. In my situation that would
mean Dutch, English and French, but
for a Slovene or a Pole it'll probably

be another story. A European should
also know the map of Europe, explore
other cultures and show a lot of
interest in the European elections. He
should take a look over the walls of
his own country. That's already a - I'm
using 'damn' for the second time hard challenge.
That's why MIM magazine is starting to work on the exploration of
Europe as a meeting and incentive
destination with an optimistic feel.
We're trying to forget our little home
country of Belgium a bit or at least
put it into perspective, although we
can say that Belgium is a topnotch
meeting country. It's well-organised
and it has a well-trained army of
professionals at its disposal. How well
advanced are the other European
countries? There's 27 of them at the
moment. Our editorial staff has done
quite some research on the subject,
so I'm looking forward to reading the
results from page 18 onwards.
Marcel A.M. Vissers

When I'm
talking about the
European Meetings
Industry I tend to
add a few concepts
to the deﬁnition of
being European

MIM > Trees for life

Meetings Forest exists!

3. newly planted area

MIM magazine has bought a Grove with Trees for Life, an organisation that devotes itself to
the restoration of the Old Caledonian Forest in Scotland. The Grove was inaugurated early
September and was given the name 'Meetings Forest'. How many trees will be planted there
on behalf of the worldwide meetings industry?
TEXT MARCEL A.M. VISSERS

New oxygen for the meetings industry
The meetings Industry is a big consumer
of transport, food and paper and on top
of that publishers are remarkable for
using trees to print their magazines. In
recent years the meetings industry was
on the receiving end of severe complaints
because we were allegedly overspending.
That's not really socially responsible and
thus bad for the image. That can't and
shouldn't happen because the meetings industry is almost entirely aimed at
bringing people together to realize the
world's objectives. An honorable goal, one
might say. This simple thought was at the
basis of our initiative to start a Meetings
Forest, a forest that might count 10,000
or 100,000 trees in a few years and where
people can hold meetings in the tree tops,
in a large tree hut... as if it's a dream.

Trees for Life
Since the founding in 1989, Trees for Life
has planted more than 800.000 trees,

2. Marking the fence line

MIM 4

and has worked to restore 458 hectares of
land. I've asked Jane Beaton of Trees for
Life how the Meetings Forest might look
like, and this is what she answered:
'Your grove has just been planted and,
not only can you visit it, you can come
and help to plant some of the trees if you
wish! There is no limit on the number of
trees that we can plant in a grove, but if
you have a rough idea of the number that
you are likely to raise funds for each year
(at £5 per tree) then we can mark out a
speciﬁc planting area that will be added to
in autumn and spring each year.
'It is no problem to name the grove
'Meetings Forest' and I can show you
some images of tree planting work and
the Caledonian Forest. The pictures show
the different stages that your grove will
achieve. Picture 1 and 2 are of the actual
site where your grove is planted. Picture 3
shows an area that has just been planted –
you can see the small trees newly planted
in the area just beyond the fence. Picture

4. Dundreggan mature woodland

4 shows what will be achieved and sustained for generations to come thanks to
your donations.'
MIM magazine now owns the Grove as you
see it on the picture and has started planting 10 trees. I hope that between now and
Spring next year a lot more will be added.
Just take a look at our special website and
contact us to donate a tree to someone
who did something 'green' or 'sustainable' in our industry in any possible way,
or even better, come and plant trees
together with us.

HOW TO PLANT
A MEETINGS TREE
write to ofﬁce@meetingmedia.eu
visit www.treesforlife.org.uk/groves/
meeting_media_company.html

1. Surveying area for planting

CONTENTS

COLOPHON
MIM magazine IS THE TREND-SETTING TRADE JOURNAL
FOR THE MEETINGS INDUSTRY IN BELUX. MIM MAGAZINE IS
NOW IN ENGLISH AND COMES OUT 6 TIMES A YEAR AND HAS
A CIRCULATION OF 5000 COPIES, PUBLISHED BY MEETING
MEDIA COMPANY BVBA/SARL.
SUBSCRIPTIONS:
An Annual subscription in Belgium costs 75 EURO
(excl. 6% tax) and comprises 6 magazines. In order to
subscribe, go to www.MIMmagazine.eu or send an e-mail
to subscribe@meetingmedia.eu.
Editor in chief:
Marcel A.M. Vissers
T: +32 (0)3 226 88 81
marcel@meetingmedia.eu
Managing Director:
Cécile Caiati-Koch
T: +32 (0)2 761 70 52
cecile@meetingmedia.eu
MIM Director:
Sophie Molle
T: +32 (0)2 761 70 53
sophie@meetingmedia.eu

GENERAL
Editorial
Meetings Forest
Short News

3
4
7

INTERVIEWS
Cover Interview - EUMA

12

THE EUROPE ISSUE
The Pioneers
Professional Associations
Europages

17
20
24

ABROAD
Prince for a Day in The Hague
Groningen
The Swiss Meeting Trophy

Short news
squash court, the possibility of living the thrills
of Formula 1 through a simulator, and more...
The ship is equipped with the most innovative
technological systems to guarantee savings in
energy and protection of the environment.

MSC Splendida

MSC Splendida, an Eco Ship
After the launch of MSC Fantasia, MSC Cruises
welcomes MSC Splendida, the largest passenger ship ever built for a European shipowner,
futuristic, yet retaining its classic simplicity and
elegance. MSC Cruises has laid out a 6-star service for highly-demanding guests who enjoy the
pleasures of life with the MSC Yacht Club, a VIP
area complete with 99 spacious suites and 24
hour butler service. For entertainment, on-board
MSC Splendida there are 4 swimming pools, a

Business Events
in Tasmania up 33%
Tasmania(big).jpgThe latest Tasmanian Visitor
Survey (TVS), covering the 08/09 ﬁnancial year,
shows that visitors to the state for business
events have increased by 33% from the same
time last year, bucking the national trend
through the Global Financial Crisis.
Business events consisting of conventions,
exhibitions, conferences, seminars, corporate

meetings and incentive group travel, are a signiﬁcant contributor to the Tasmanian economy
and social capital.

The ﬁrst French 5-star
Soﬁtel in Biarritz
After the 5-star hotels he had managed in
Belgium, Bart Van Cauwelaert can proud himself
on being the director of the ﬁrst Soﬁtel in France
with a 5-star rating. The authorities gave the
rating on 23 September to the Soﬁtel Miramar in
Biarritz with its 126 rooms.

Send your press releases to press@meetingmedia.eu

PARTICIPATE AT
THE BOOST AWARD 2009!

Do you organise a titillating, original and creative teambuilding event or convention in
Ostend in the course of 2009? If so, you can put yourself in the running for the Boost
Award: Best of Ostend Teambuilding, Corporate & Public Event and Convention 2009.

APPEAL TO PCO’S, TEAMBUILDING ORGANISERS
AND EVENT AGENCIES.
You did not submit your case in 2008? Try your luck for the Boost Award 2009!

The Golden Tulip Antwerp Centre Hotel behind
the Central Station will be known as the Lindner Hotel & City Lounge from now on. Lindner
Hotels & Resorts is a German, family-run hotel
group with 33 city and resort hotels in the
4- and 5-star segment. The group is planning
a few ambitious new projects, for example in
Brussels and Amsterdam. Lindner Hotels &
Resorts is now present in 5 European markets.

For more than half a century, Efteling’s stunning fairy tale location has entranced leisure and
business visitors. The organisation of various meetings and incentives has been possible for
many, many years: several meeting programmes, client oriented traning programmes, customised dinners, launches parties, ... 1001 options.
From 11 December 2009 onwards, it will be possible for longer business events to be organised in a
new and – literally – fabulous setting. Efteling Bosrijk is a new vacation park within walking distance
of Efteling and of Efteling Golf. More than a
few small homes and two impressive themed
apartment buildings lie in a landscape
dotted with dunes, dense patches of forest,
open ﬁelds and babbling brooks. The ‘Landhuys’ with its 54 apartments and multifunctional room, can be rented completely for
your event. It’s a ﬁne addition to Efteling and
Efteling Golf, making the list of meeting and
incentive possibilities a neverending story.

www.efteling.com

Château St. Gerlach

New partners Maastricht CB
No less than ﬁve new partners joined the
Maastricht Convention Bureau recently. Three
hotels, one restaurant and one PCO. Hotel Van
der Valk Maastricht is situated on the outskirts
of the town centre. The Kruisherenhotel is a
ﬁve star design hotel in a former 15th century
cloister and monumental gothic church in the
city centre of Maastricht. Château St. Gerlach, a
luxury hotel located in the surrounding area of
Maastricht, has a historical ambiance, excellent
hotel and meeting facilities, and an excellent
cuisine. Beluga, a restaurant with no less than
two Michelin stars, is beautifully situated along
the banks of the river Maas. Klinkhamer Conference Management is specialized in organising,
advising & consultancy and interim work.

Catering and Event pavillions on EMIF 2010
On 18 March the doors of EMIF will have to open
extra wide because the Facts on Acts fair will
be held on the same grounds. That's a one-day
events fair that will have its own pavillion for
visitors from the events industry. Visitors are
welcome to visit both fairs of course.
There will be another extra pavillion for catering
companies that want to promote their services

MIM 8

during EMIF. They will get the opportunity to
show their tricks to the fair visitors. Better not
eat too much in the morning!
EMIF is held on 17 and 18 March in Tour & Taxis,
Brussels.

Porto

Rio de Janeiro

MCI goes to
the Brazilian Sun
MCI, a global leader in association, event and
communications management, will expand its
global presence with new ofﬁces in São Paulo
and Rio de Janeiro. The MCI São Paulo ofﬁce will
mainly develop the corporate side, focusing on
the Healthcare sector, whilst MCI Rio de Janeiro
will be the centre for association clients, with
a strong focus on Association Management.
Moreover, as Rio de Janeiro is one of the main
destinations in Brazil for incoming groups,
Ovation Brazil, the destination operation, will be
strategically based in that city.

Site announced Porto as
ESNEP 2010 destination
ESNEP 2010 (European Site Networking and
Education Program), the industry’s foremost
educational and networking event, will be held in
the charming locale of Porto, Portugal from 9-12
April 2010. During the four-day annual event, Site
members can expect an outstanding educational
program, networking, and exciting destination
discovery activities as they explore what this
region has to offer for motivational experiences
and programs.
This year’s educational program will focus on
the evolution of the industry and trends, CSR,
driving business results through social media,
and the next generation of incentives and how
to employ them.

MIM > General > Short News

Creative Technology
at EIBTM
Dedicated daily Technology Hour sessions
demonstrate how new technologies will impact
the meetings industry. Creativity, innovation,
Generation Y, the impact of social media and the
future of technology in the meetings industry
are to be tackled at EIBTM 2009. With a line up of
international experts, the provocative and challenging sessions will take place at 13.00 each day
from 1-3 December at Fira Gran Via, Barcelona,
highlighting the ever shifting developments,
trends and new technological products and
services available to the industry.

New Hilton name and logo

Bilderberg Kasteel
Vaalsbroek re-opened
The Dutch castle has been enlarged by a luxurious conference room and restaurant. Featuring
1500 m_ meeting space, 130 guestrooms and
a Spa & Wellness-centre Bilderberg Kasteel
Vaalsbroek is one of the biggest locations for
meetings in a castle within the Netherlands
and the Euregio. Bilderberg Kasteel Vaalsbroek
belongs to the 5 top conference locations in the
Netherlands. The new Moretti pavillion has a size
of 330m_ and is equipped with modern meeting
technology.

Hilton Worldwide (formerly Hilton Hotels Corporation) has announced the launch of its new
corporate name and logo. Hilton's new name,
Hilton Worldwide, signiﬁes the company's global
breadth and reach, and the logo incorporates
key design elements that reﬂect Hilton's rich
heritage, vision for the future and commitment
to excellence in service. Hilton Worldwide's
portfolio of ten brands comprises more than
3,300 hotels in 77 countries around the world.
The company will open more than 300 hotels
this year.

'Skoj' in the Holiday Inn
Brussels Airport
Holiday Inn Brussels Airport has presented its
new meeting concept, called Skoj, which is Swedish for 'fun'. Four of the meeting rooms refer to
the world's historic meeting cultures. The Eskimo room features ice-like 'snowball' chairs; the
Berber, sand-colored 'fatboys'; the Masai, a high
table and chairs based on their Adumu jumping
dance; the Native Americans, rustic cowhide and
leather seats. Instead of old-school whiteboards
and black markers, all rooms are equipped with
a glazed colored panel that slides over the LCD
ﬂatscreen television, that can be easily written
on and wiped off. Before, during the breaks or
afterwards, you can stroll through the hotel’s
gardens, play a game of petanque, shoot some
hoops or jump on the trampoline. All this in the
name of creativity.

Is there a more appropriate destination than
Brussels, The European Union’s capital city,
for holding the 4th Congress organised by the
European Federation of the Associations of
Professional Congress Organisers? Delegates
will include leading meetings industry decision
makers, conference organisers and representatives from public authorities. The congress will
be one of the ﬁrst major events to take place
in the brand new SQUARE (Brussels Palais des
Congrès). The theme will be 'Sustainability and
competitiveness in the Meetings Industry'.
A wide range of topics will be tackled by an
impressive line-up of keynote speakers. There
will also be panel discussions and round-table
sessions allowing every participant to share
knowledge on issues including 'strategies behind
making the right business choices', 'Working
with Generation Y', 'Corporate Social Responsibility' and 'PCOs’ liabilities versus clients'
responsibilities'.

Star Alliance

Star Alliance launches
worldwide meetings product
Star Alliance has launched a global product for
the meetings market: Meetings Plus. Companies, meeting planners and incentive agencies
needing to organise gatherings with participants
from different countries, now have access to
the entire Star Alliance network, by contracting
their travel needs through just one Star Alliance
member airline. Meetings Plus can be used
for most meetings of 50 people or more, with
attendees originating in at least three different
countries.

1 - 3 December 2009
Join over 250 international association executives for 2 days of networking, professional
education and business. EIBTM is the leading international exhibition for the global meetings
and incentives industry, taking place in the beautiful destination of Barcelona. Apply today for
your place on the unique Hosted Buyer Programme and receive VIP beneďŹ ts.
Find out more today: www.eibtm.com/association

A new
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A
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experience

Park Inn Antwerpen is the newest and hottest hotel in Antwerp! Situated just a few steps from the
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MIM
MI
M > Cover
Co in
Co
inte
terv
rvie
iew
w

Chantal Sneijkers - EUMA
Doing more than assisting
Who's organising most of the events? Of course
we have the Directors, Managers, Commercial and
Marketing Managers, but the meetings industry
might forget the hard work of one particular group
now and then.
MIM magazine wants to put them in the picture here
and now, and we asked Chantal Sneijkers of the
European Management Assistants (EUMA)
Association why: 'Organising an event is something
very practical, so it's often the management assistant who does the job, or at least a big part of it.
I worked out the event for the Sporza editorial staff,
for instance. During our education, project
management is part of our teaching package too,
and quite a few of us organised an incentive as a
project during our training, which is an
experience that deďŹ nitely helps us when we need
to organize an incentive now.'
INTERVIEW AND TEXT CĂ&#x2030;CILE CAIATI-KOCH AND STEVEN KINS

MIM 12

MIM > cover interview

European Management Assistants Association
MIM: First of all, why is MIM magazine
interesting for you, being a Management
Assistant?
Chantal: 'I appreciate the interesting interviews with people that we can relate to.
Also the practical info fascinates me, especially because you don't only talk about
Brussels. For instance, I didn't know you
could hold an event in the Antwerp Zoo.
A Dutch EUMA member asked me about
the incentive possibilities in Antwerp, and
now I can help him. All the info you ﬁnd in
a reference book can be found online, but
MIM magazine offers you all the info you
need and gives inspirational ideas on top
of that. It's no advertising leaﬂet either, so
you can just sit down, relax and read it.'

Association structure and history
MIM: Could you introduce EUMA to
the readers of MIM magazine?
Chantal Sneijkers: 'EUMA (European Management Assistants) is an international
quality network of management support
professionals who focus on their personal
development and on the future of their
profession. That's the mission statement
of the association which has remained
unchanged for 35 years. We don't want to
present ourselves as a women's association either, we're Management Assistants!
For those who might wonder, yes, we also
have men among our members.'

MIM: How has the association evolved?
Chantal: 'The Association exists since 1974
and has about 1400 members, represented
in 20 national groups (Iceland, Norway,
Sweden, Finland, Denmark, UK, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg,
France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Spain,
Slovenia, Poland, Hungary, Greece and
Cyprus). We also have individual members
in the United States, Portugal, Russia,
Romania and Croatia, because you need
to be with at least ten people to start a
national group.
'We try to put ourselves in the picture
through our website and our own magazine 'proActive', but we also do interviews
- like this one - and speak for alumni
management assistants. It is frustrating to
hear people say: 'We've never heard about

EUMA.' Even though we're in a media
building here, it's difﬁcult to get your message out there.'

MIM: What's the strategy for the future?
Chantal: 'Just to keep on going actually.
An association is something that lives,
older people go while young people join
in. You're a member during your entire
professional career.'

MIM: Are there
any partnerships
or links with other
organisations?

every year during the Annual Conference
but not always for every function. If necessary, we hold ad hoc elections. Everybody
gets the opportunity to get on the board
but each position requires speciﬁc qualities. A PR Ofﬁcer needs to be perfect in
selling EUMA. Of course, you should be
able to perform well in a team and work
well with different cultures. For the rest,
just believe in it and put a lot of your time
and effort in the organisation.'

Working with a professional organiser
allows us to really focus on the content
and on keeping the participation rate
low for our members

Chantal: 'We have
links with sisterassociations in Portugal, United States
and New Zealand
or with Management Assistant Antwerp for instance, and
in each country where we're represented
we have corporate members, which can
be schools for management assistants, or
companies like hotels, airlines, educational
publishing houses.
'Most national groups have quite a lot of
national sponsors but we are also working
hard to obtain a real European partnership. Therefore we're studying each sponsorship request individually in order to do
the best thing possible for the association.'

MIM: How has the association changed in
recent years?
Chantal: 'I believe it hasn't really changed
enough, but it's not easy to bring people
together on an international level. Our
focus has stayed the same for the past 35
years. However, we changed our name in
1999 and of course our members change.
We start thinking more like a company, but
we remain a voluntary association.'

Board
MIM: How are the European board elections
organized?
Chantal: 'There are four European Committee Members, who are elected by the
members for a period of two years, which
can be extended by another two years, but
that's the limit. So we can have elections

Events
MIM: What kind of events do you organise?
Chantal: 'In Belgium we have an event
each month but the frequency depends
on the national chapters. On the international level, we have an Annual Training
Day around one particular subject which
is selected by the members, and this attracts approximately 120 participants. In

Proﬁle
Chantal Sneijkers is the Executive Assistant
at the VRT news service, which has about
300 employees, and she makes sure that
the three editors in chief work together
in perfect harmony, she supports them in
every possible way and makes sure they
don't lose track of the main objective. She's
been with the VRT for 22 years now and
previously worked in the radio department
and the sports service where she covered
the Olympics in Beijing. Chantal's been
with EUMA for seven years now and really
had a lightning career there - after only
six months of being a member she was
voted president of the Belgian chapter, she
became the congress manager in 2007 and
last year she was voted Board member,
more speciﬁcally the European Public Relations Ofﬁcer.

MIM 13

2ADISSON "LU !STRID -)- SEPTPDF

MIM > cover interview

autumn there's also the Annual Conference with around 250 participants. This is
bigger because a trade fair is attached to
it. The ﬁrst two days are for the European
board and then the full council with all the
national boards is next.'

MIM: Can you already reveal something
about the content for the Conference in
Brussels?
Chantal: 'The 2010 conference in Brussels
will be held on Friday 22 October at the
Sheraton Brussels Airport Hotel. The title
goes as follows: A Brave New World, focus
on what matters for your future! We have
determined a general framework, but
at this moment, it is not possible yet to
conﬁrm any speciﬁc titles of sessions and
workshops as we are currently working on
conﬁrming speakers.

MIM: How do you select your destinations?
Chantal: 'National groups can apply to

We have 1400 members with buying
or inﬂuential power from
big companies all over Europe
'Next year, even more than now, we are all
confronted with a world that has changed
following the 2007 credit crunch and the
2008 ﬁnancial and economic crises. We
have woken up to a new world, to a new
order. For a lot of companies it was a rude
wake-up call. How can we deal with this
'brave new world' as a European business
community and, on a personal level, as
management assistants in our everyday
working environment?

host an international event, so the location
changes each year. Previous host cities included Copenhagen, Helsinki, Nice, Amsterdam, Athens, Malmö, Brussels and Berlin.
When there is more than one candidate,
the Full Council with all the national boards
make a choice. A few years ago we had
the more 'sexy' southern destinations but
lately we had a lot of northern countries,
but some of them are real eye-openers.'

MIM: What type of venues do you use?
'We will focus, not only on the bigger European picture, but also on what successful
companies are doing to come out of these
challenging times as winners. Attendees
will have the opportunity to exchange ideas
with knowledgeable speakers from the European governmental institutions and from
successful and innovative companies.

Chantal: 'We mostly work with the larger
four or ﬁve-star hotels as we have a need
for big meeting rooms, but not as big as an
entire conference centre. We insist on the
rates for the whole group and while many
members are sponsored by their company,
we cover the travel and hotel costs for the
board members.'

'As soon as speaker, or business partners
for that same matter are conﬁrmed, the
information is updated on the conference

MIM: Do you work together with a professional organizer?

country to another each year and so the
organizing committee changes with each
conference. It is up to the local team to decide if they want to work with a conference
organizer or not. We do however notice
that the past few years we have always
worked with a professional organizer; this
allows us to really focus on the content
and on keeping the participation rate low
for our members.
'Working with a conference organizer does
not only liberate the team from all practical questions and details, but it offers
great advantages when it comes to dealing
with VAT and insurance issues, it helps in
getting the right business contacts and
ﬁnally a conference organizer often has
more negotiation power when it comes to
venues.'

MIM: Do you take 'green' actions in your
events?
Chantal: 'We had congresses on this subject and we've stopped using plastic conference bags for instance. We send all our
correspondence by email and many people
bring their laptop with the documents they
need for the meeting instead of printing
their texts. All these small efforts are easy
to do and still make a difference.'

Want to become a member of EUMA?
Go to www.euma.org

Chantal: 'The conference moves from one

MIM 15

TOURISM AND CONVENTIONS

here

be

you

ÂŠ Jean-NoĂŤl Leblanc - Bontemps

be

A city of nuance and emotions, Lyon brings out the best in you naturally. Here, creativity and talent shine as
one. Listen to your heart, discover yourself, follow your instinct. Your life will take on new intensity in Lyon.

lll#dcanandc#dg\

MIM > Europe > Pioneers

What are ‘pioneers’ in the
European meetings industry?

TEXT MARCEL A.M. VISSERS

Throughout history people have selﬂessly
committed themselves to a greater ideal
– be they gold prospectors, scientists,
politicians or humanitarian helpers. Consequently there must have been people
at the cradle of the meetings industry.
Several questions arise. How long has this
discipline existed in Europe? Answer: no
more than 50 years. So, it’s a young industry? Who invented this industry? It’s difﬁcult to say … but it’s common knowledge
which people have assisted at its birth: the
founding fathers and mothers.
The names of these pioneers can be found
in the annals of professional organisations, like ICCA (founded in 1963 by a
group of travel agents) and ECM (EFCT,
founded in 1964). They were or still are
presidents or board members of these
organisations. You can be certain to
ﬁnd them all gathered each year at the
ECM Summer School. There they often
appear as eminent professors, transmitting their knowledge and experience to
younger generations. Oftentimes they
have specialised themselves in a certain
branch of the meetings industry. There
are association industry pioneers, statisticians, marketing and promotion specialists, ... they all have one thing in common:
management qualities. The cleverness and
skill with which they have led a convention
bureau still resound. They lifted cities up
and ensured a steady ﬂow of money into
the municipal funds. Their view on the
meetings industry is shaped by conceptual
thinking, economic realism and especially
by an international take on business.
Many of their statements have retained
their original value and impact. That’s
why these pioneers deserve an award. An
award in which category? There’s only
one: the award for hard and diligent workers. Should they be celebrated? Certainly.

I think priority should be given to Tuula
Lindberg, who retired earlier this year
and still deserves a farewell party. We will
celebrate the other pioneers later. On the
following pages, we’ll let a few pioneers
tell in their own words what they did for
the development of the meetings industry.

Resonant statements
- Tuula Lindberg, former director
of Finland Convention Bureau (1983).
International awards include the JMIC Proﬁle &
Power Award 2008, the ICCA Moises Shuster Award
2002, the JMIC Unity Award 1998 and the Lorenzo
de Medici Award 1997 for an outstanding contribution to the international meetings industry.
‘If we want to convince, we have to measure. If we
want to measure, we have to report. If we want to
prove something, we have to measure regularly.’
‘A convention bureau should be managed like
a household.’
- Christian Mutschlechner,
director Vienna Convention Bureau (1977).
Borsa del Tourismo Congressuale (BTC). Lorenzo
de Medici-Award 2004. Reed Travel Exhibitions.
Meeting Industry Personality of the Year 2008.
‘In our industry age doesn’t matter, neither does

Enrico Zufﬁ, Geneva

the colour of your. Only experience matters.’
‘ICCA and UIA statistics: use them as a trend
barometer, not as factual statistics, because…
you should have your own meetings industry
statistics!’
- Anne Wallin Rodven, director Oslo Visitors
and Convention Bureau (VisitOSLO) (1990).
‘Some things should not be said during business
hours. Rather, take them home to discuss.’
‘A testimony is stronger than the best sales effort.
Make happy clients your best marketing tool.’
- Airy Garrigoza was appointed in 1983
to start the Barcelona Convention Bureau.
The Olympics of 1992 in Barcelona were a turning
point for the European meetings industry: a
second city became a hype and an example: a city
that surpassed its own capital city.
‘The best present that EMC (EFCT) ever gave to the
European meetings industry is the yearly Summer
School. There’s no better school or university for
young people in our industry.’
‘What do female convention bureau managers
have in common? Readiness to ﬁght!’

Pioneers in the European M
New and upcoming destinations are always nice, but looking at the pioneers might give you an even
better insight. This was the starting point of our Europe special, but how do you select who was
the trendsetter back in the day? Simply think about who are the experienced longtimers in our
business. That's how we came up with Vienna, Barcelona, Geneva and Finland, where Tuula Lindberg
concentrated on statistics - something that was later adopted by the entire meetings industry and
gave power to our sector. The names of our interviewees should even ring a bell, because they're
considered by many as authorities in our industry. We wanted to know when and why they started
a convention bureau, how they began promoting their destination and what they're doing today
to hold off the competition. TEXT STEVEN KINS
MIM: When did you decide that
the meetings industry was an untrodden and lucrative - territory?
Christian Mutschlechner: 'The Vienna
Convention Bureau exists since 1969. At
the time, we had just got our new conference centre under private management
and the ﬁrst hotel with meeting space.
Already there were many meetings and
congresses in Vienna so the city and the
chamber of commerce decided that they
needed a dedicated Convention Bureau.'
Airy Garrigosa: 'The Barcelona Convention Bureau was launched in 1983 by
the former Barcelona Tourist Board, a
100% City Council owned organisation.
Actually it was the demand of the private
sector related to the congress world that

Airy Garrigosa - director of
Barcelona Convention Bureau

MIM 18

new

put pressure in order to constitute the
Convention Bureau, the objective being to
have a public umbrella and to promote the
destination in the association world.'
Satu Keiski-Toni: 'In 1974 we launched one
of the ﬁrst convention bureaus in Europe.
The Helsinki Congress Bureau, despite its
name, promoted the whole of Finland. It
was an idea of the city of Helsinki and the
Chamber of Commerce who wanted to
attract association congresses at ﬁrst, but
later on also corporate events.'
Enrico Zufﬁ: 'Sixteen years ago we started
with the Geneva Tourist Ofﬁce, which was
ofﬁcially changed into the Geneva Tourism
and Convention Bureau in the year 2000
and since 2007 we have a dedicated direc-

old

tor for the convention bureau. The original
idea to start this bureau was evidently to
attract more meetings and more business
to our city. The Geneva convention centres
and hotels were the main driving forces
behind the whole project.'

MIM: What were the ﬁrst initiatives
to promote your destination?
Mutschlechner: 'The ﬁrst steps consisted
of building up the convention bureau
within the tourist ofﬁce, but it didn't take
long before we started with an electronic
database and that was a big leap forward.'
Garrigosa: 'The ﬁrst initiatives were to
draw an inventory of all the facilities and
services in town and produce a Congress
Guide, to become a member of ICCA

Christian Mutschlechner directorr of
The Vienna Convention Bureau

new

o

MIM > Europe > Pioneers

n Meetings Industry
so that we have access to their database
of International Associations and a few
years later, at the time of the Olympic
Games, to target Corporate and Incentive
meetings.'

and from time to time we reevaluate everything that we're doing and the way in which
we're doing it, with the intention of being
upfront and being involved in any changes
that might occur in our business. That's

'Today we've become by far more
proactive and interconnected
with our clients'
Keiski-Toni: 'At the time, we had important
connections with universities and faculties.
That's why it was important in the beginning to motivate scientists to organise
meetings. It was a good way to start.'

MIM: What do you have to do now to maintain your position as a meeting
and incentive destination?
Mutschlechner: 'Now we've become by far
more proactive and interconnected with
our clients. Actually it's all related to the
database we installed in the early seventies.
This provided a huge amount of info, so our
approach to our potential clients became
different but deďŹ nitely also easier. Our level
of service permanently keeps on increasing

old

Tuula Lindberg, former director
of Finland Convention Bureau (1983)

the key challenge today: to be part of any
change or shift within the industry.'
Garrigosa: 'Barcelona has always had
- and still has - a very strong scientiďŹ c,
medical and academic community, with
seven universities, research centres, and
six public hospitals, apart from the private
ones. The hotel capacity has grown from
9,000 rooms in 1990 to over 33,000 today
and more hotels are under construction
or just about to open. New convention
centres have also opened their doors:
the privately-owned Catalonia Congress
Centre, the CCIB with capacity for 15,000
people, and the Fira Gran Via, an exhibition and convention centre with almost

new

old

unlimited capacity. The city has become
the fourth tourist destination in Europe
after Paris, London and Rome.'
Keiski-Toni: 'Our Ministry of Trade, Employment and Education supports the industry
because we market and sell the destination. We're a one-stop-shop that connects
14 different cities, 12 destinations, 100
members and 23 universities in Finland,
and we're giving all the leads we get to
our members. In the future there's a good
possibility that we'll start educating and
training the members through annual sessions on ROI, or environmental issues, for
instance. The relationships between the
different partners is good because it's a
small country.'
ZufďŹ : 'The initiatives we take work exceptionally well for association meetings,
partly thanks to our increased efforts
in market research, but like everywhere
else the corporate market is down. Due to
this slowdown, the hotel rates have been
adapted in Geneva. Further initiatives we
take include the constant renovation of
our venues, hotels and conference centres,
but the most eyecatching thing might be
the free transport we offer to the groups
that come to Geneva, starting from the
airport and during their entire stay.'

Keiski-Toni managing director
of Finland Convention Bureau

MIM 19

MIM > Europe > Professional Associations

International professional associations:

A focus on Europe

Manchester

For those who have been reading
MIM magazine for a long time now,
they must remember that not so
long ago it was written in Dutch
and in French. When we decided
last January to write everything
in English, the initiative was
praised by the meetings industry
as a whole. After all, English is the
language with which everybody
converses and communicates now.
But writing in English is not just a
phase. In fact, it makes sense in our
overall effort to grow European.
And that’s where it dawned on us.
What if we asked presidents of
European professional associations
their views on the European meetings industry? The idea was to talk
to EFAPCO, Site and MPI and have
their insights, while giving pride of
place to UK, Germany and France
through national associations like
ABPCO, ISES and ANAé.
TEXT RÉMI DÉVÉ

MIM 20

First a statement that will certainly
reassure most of you. Despite the
current economic crisis, the overall
situation is not that bad and the
future does not look that bleak.
Europe remains intensely popular for
meetings and conference in the world.
Cities like Paris, Vienna, Barcelona or
Berlin have maintained their strong
rankings in both the 2008 ICCA and

UIA statistics, even if, as Nicolas le
Brun, EFAPCO (European Federation
of the Associations of PCOs), points
out, ‘numbers show that our market
shares have slowly eroded over the
last few years mainly to the beneﬁt of
Asia.’
In fact, according to EIBTM’s Mood
of the Market Report 2009, the most
popular destinations throughout the
world in the last twelve months are
Germany, Spain, Italy, France and the
USA, followed by the UK, Austria and
the Netherlands. Who’s to complain?

'Sustainability
is clearly an
aspect which
is being implemented more and
more by organisers worldwide
and Europe is
ﬁghting to be at
the forefront of
this trend’

Compact, green and virtual

Nicolas Le Brun - EFAPCO

It’s the very nature of events that

Unlike in the US, meetings and events
in EU are not being ‘attacked’ by a
hostile popular media. Here we do not
have the same ‘perception’ issues.
According to Padraic Gilligan, who was
President of Site in 2008, meeting
and event activity in Healthcare and
Pharma continues apace as these sectors have stayed relatively recession
free ‘although there has been some
attrition in expected delegate numbers
at medical and other conferences
due to destination or market speciﬁc
economic realities.’

MIM > Europe > Professional Associations

Nicolas Le Brun - EFAPCO

seems to have changed in the
past years, since people question
the ROI and don't just organize an event for the sake of the
event anymore. As Rebecca Cadman Jones, Chair of ABPCO (Association of British Professional
Conference Organisers) remarks
‘events are more condensed. The
quantity of meetings reduced
slightly, even though most of
them still offer high-quality
content of course.’
These days ever more attention
is being paid to priorities. Delegates who travel are increasingly
keen to gain maximum beneﬁt
from their precious time at conferences. They want to meet the
right people to share knowledge
with them. Organisers clearly try
to ‘compact’ their events while
still keeping one or two slots for
more social activities.
The ultimate goal is of course
to make events as cost-effective
as possible: in fact all data indicates a preference for shorter
meetings with lower costs, more
straightforward logistic and
less extensive perks or ameni-

ties. Michaela Herzig, President
of ISES (International Special
Events Society) Europe, states
it this way: ‘Since the beginning
of the economic crisis, the trend
has been to save money! The
budgets have been reduced, so
special events have to be created
as creative and efﬁcient as possible.’ Philippe Fournier, President
of ANAé, adds: ‘long-distance
became medium-distance and
medium became short. Of course
there are still lots of events happening abroad, but it’s less than
last year. On another side, I feel
that more attention to health
and safety is paid in the organisation of an event nowadays.’
Nicolas le Brun also indicates:
‘the economic situation has
brought even further meetings
into business cities. Destinations
with a ‘recreational or tourist’ image are usually ﬁnding
it harder to secure conference
business but some have reacted
positively and positioned their
offer differently.’
One of the aspects that almost
all respondents who were questioned for this article agreed on

What’s happening
In the UK:
‘These are tough times ﬁnancially, but big cities like Birmingham, Glasgow and Manchester are getting big national and
international events and ROI is higher this year. Because of
Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and Olympics in London,
a lot of events happen in the UK. But UK corporates and organisations are staying more at home, due to cost. Inbound
tourism is coming mainly from the UK because people are
looking where they spend their money on.’
Rebecca Cadman-Jones, Chair of ABPCO

In France:
‘The last couple of months have seen a dramatic decrease in
the amount of time given to respond to RFPs. Agencies and
meetings planners have less time to give a quotation for their
services. Companies decide for their events more and more
on the last minute. There are maybe less incentives this year
due to crisis. Apart from that, a lot of smaller meetings take
place compared to last years and the number of meeting
participants also sometimes reduces.’
Philippe Fournier, President of ANAé

In Germany:
‘In the recent years there was a permanent growth in the
German meetings industry market, but since the beginning of the economic crisis in autumn 2008 the number of
special events and conferences went down. Today, German
mid-sized companies prefer Germany as a destination for
meetings and events, because of lower costs and the perfect infrastructure.’
Michaela Herzig, President of ISES Europe

MIM 21

MIM > Europe > Professional Associations

Seine - Paris

Didier Scaillet - MPI

'Europe has seen an increase in bookings to Central
and Eastern Europe, because of improved infrastructure
and transport links'
Didier Scaillet - MPI
is that sustainability deﬁnitely needs to
be taken into account when organizing
an event. Green is not just a word: now
clients want to know about the internal policy of an agency regarding that
particular matter, social programme activities that involve ‘giving back’ become
increasingly popular and certiﬁcations of
venues and/or behaviour have become
the talk of the town.
As Nicolas le Brun points out, ‘clients are
now on the look-out for sustainable solutions. This encompasses not only green
venues but destinations which are within
easy reach internationally, requiring
less travel. It is clearly an aspect which
is being implemented more and more
by organisers worldwide and Europe is
ﬁghting to be at the forefront of this
trend.’ Didier Scaillet, Meeting Professionals International (MPI) VP Global
Development, also notices that ‘the industry increasingly sees virtual meetings
as an important trend, and many predict

MIM 22

a shift to Web-based learning as a way to
control meeting and travel costs.’

Popular destinations, popular venues
In terms of venues, everything of course
depends on the budget one might have,
but also on the type of event that needs
to be organized. Rebecca Cadman-Jones
observes that ‘large convention centres
in big cities have frozen or dropped their
prices.’ To her, that’s a ﬁrst - it has never
happened before. But to Padraic Gilligan,
2008 President of Site, nothing has
changed much: ‘All planners are continually seeking new and innovative venues
while, simultaneously, offering access for
delegates to signature cultural icons in a
private or exclusive setting.’
According to MPI (whose useful table
regarding choice of venues is printed
below), the top factors inﬂuencing venue
selection are location and price, which
are far more important than any other
factor such as quality of service or

MIM > Europe > Professional Associations

'All planners are
continually seeking new
and innovative venues
while, simultaneously,
offering access for
delegates to signature
cultural icons in a private
or exclusive setting'

Padraic Gilligan - Site

Padraic Gilligan - Site
quality of conference facilities and food
quality. Airport destinations are also
becoming increasingly popular because
travellers are struggling with transport.
Didier Scaillet states: ‘Providing these
hotels are of the right quality and venue,
this trend will continue. Using airport
venues often means that organisers can
reduce the length of an event by a night and this is cost-effective too.’
Regarding the choice of destinations,
you still ﬁnd two ways of thinking: those
who are on the look-out for a balance
between cost reduction and efﬁciency;
the others who need to offer something
new to their delegates and are ready to
try less well-known destinations and special venues often setting new trends. At
EFAPCO, as Nicolas le Brun states, they
‘have certainly witnessed an interest in
taking meetings to ‘new’ EU member
states such as Slovenia, Hungary, Malta
and the Baltic states.’ A trend conﬁrmed

www.anae.org

www.abpco.org

by MPI: ‘Europe has seen an increase in
bookings to Central and Eastern Europe,
because of improved infrastructure and
transport links - and in particular to
Poland, Hungary and Lithuania.’
To draw a quick conclusion, everyone
stressed the overall importance of meetings in general for the sake of society as
a whole. The message conveyed here is
deﬁnitely optimistic: due to the current
ﬁnancial situation, companies should
more than ever organize events and
meetings to talk to their employees, to

motivate staff. The more stress you have
in a company, the more you need to communicate and pass on information. In this
way, it is crucial that the meetings industry as a whole promotes even further the
importance of getting people together
and the impact conferences have on
societal and business development.

'The quantity of meetings has reduced
slightly, even though most of them still
offer high-quality content of course'
Rebecca Cadman Jones - ABPCO

www.ises-europe.com

www.efapco.eu

www.mpiweb.org

www.site-intl.org

MIM 23

MIM > Europages

A mosaic picture
of meetings
& incentives
in europe
Sure, you can always choose the same, well-known destinations for your next meeting, event or
incentive trip, where you can be sure of the same constant quality and reliability, but why not take
a chance for once, and let your group discover a new location in Europe? Who knows, it might just
be your next favourite spot in the old continent. Often the enthusiasm and hospitality of the people
there make up for the possible lack of experience, and creative solutions replace the safe, obvious
choices you otherwise might make. Some of these destinations might even astonish you with the
capacity, hospitality and the possibilities they have to offer.

Tallinn - Estonia

Estonia
Calling Estonia a new meeting and incentive destination is not stretching the
truth when you consider the fact that the
Estonian Convention Bureau was launched
only last year.
Tartu, Pärnu and the capital Tallin all have
the advantage of being close to the airport and they have the advantage of being
compact and walkable. Medieval towns
are a perfect background for the modern
facilities you ﬁnd here and the old town of
Tallinn even is a UNESCO World Heritage
site. But no lack of restaurants, bars and
shops here, however, how do you feel
about a medieval castle with a handy Wi-Fi
connection (remember, Estonia is one of
the most wired-up places on the planet
with a free wireless connection almost
everywhere), or a tour around a Soviet
base? Together with the Finnish city of
Turku, Tallin will be European Capital of
Culture in 2011, so you can expect more

MIM 24

novelties from this destination in the near
future.

Czech Republic
Outside of the already popular city of
Prague, the Czech Republic can offer
elegant spa towns, strange castles, large
forests and even underground cave complexes. Combine this with the distinctive

Hrad KarlÅ¡tejn - Czech Republic

MIM > Europages

Bratislava - Slowakia

cuisine, the heritage, and the art and you
have yourself a new business destination.
Hills and mountains form the main part of
the landscape, so winter sports, mountain
biking, climbing and hill walking are obvious choices, but don't be afraid to include
a touch of Czech magic (just look at Hrad
Karlstejn - the Czech Disney castle).

Slowakia
Bratislava, the capital at the Danube, is for
sure one of the European capitals where
not many people have come during their
regular holidays. That doesn't make it any
less interesting though. Wine sampling is
one idea, or exploring the massive Renaissance fortress of Cerveny Kamen, or even
a visit to the Bratislava Opera. The old
town can easily be discovered on foot and
hides many historic venues that can be
included in your event.

Finland
Finland has presented itself on the convention market as one of the ﬁrst destinations, but still it's an 'exotic' location for
many people. New airline connections

Turku - Finland

will open the country for more potential
visitors. Helsinki Exhibition & Convention
Centre has been ranked among the top
10 European congress centres in terms of
value for money, which is always a nice
extra these days.
The City of Turku on the west coast of
Finland will be one of the two European
Cities of Culture in 2011 alongside the
Estonian capital Tallinn. Approximately 150
projects have already been announced for
the occasion, so if you visit Turku in 2011,
you're bound to be in the centre of the
action. Turku Fair and Congress Centre is
further developing its facilities and will be
able to offer modern restaurant, meeting,
congress and banqueting facilities for up
to 800 people.

Gotheborg - Sweden

Sweden
The second largest city in the country,
Göteborg has already hosted major events
like the 1995 World Athletics Championships, but its reputation as a meeting
and incentive destination has not yet
conquered the whole of Europe. What
immediately catches the eye is the close
connection to the sea and water. The wide
river ﬂows through the city and ﬂows out
into the sea, so the maritime inﬂuence
is never far away. A fun way of showing
different sides of Sweden in one trip is
visiting one of the many islands in the
city's archipelago where you can discover
the local bathing houses for instance. Just
jump on the ferry as if it was a regular bus.
Of course the local cuisine makes clever
use of the ﬁrst-class ingredients, so you
can be sure that you'll ﬁnd a lot of ﬁsh and

Ljubljana - Slovenia

seafood among the chefs' specialities. We
couldn't deny you the favourite must-sees
in Göteborg, like Linnégatan which is lined
with bars, restaurants and shops. Haga is
the city's oldest suburb with lovely wooden
housen nestled along the cobbled streets
and here you'll ﬁnd typical antique and
fashion shops. Heaven 23 is the sky bar
at the Gothia Towers Hotel, 23 ﬂoors up,
as the name suggests. Enjoy the amazing
view while you're trying the gigantic prawn
sandwiches. The Spanish staircase in the
ultramodern Museum of World Culture has
become a new meeting place in the city.

Slovenia
A very green (as a matter of fact, it's the
second greenest country behind Finland)
and rural country where health spas have
been part of the culture for centuries that's one of the descriptions you might
give. Many of those wellness locations lie
in quiet and leafy environments. Slovenia

is obviously the perfect destination if you want to discover the
great outdoors. But it's not only idyllic, it's also safe, accessible, and diverse. Slovenia also enjoys an excellent climate, has
many new and renovated venues, can offer an efﬁcient, friendly
service, and prides itself on its honest people. Examples of the
ﬁne local food and wine can be found everywhere thanks to the
long culinary heritage that sprang from the many cultures that
inﬂuenced the country.
The very active Slovenia Convention Bureau has introduced a
system whereby its members have to pass a formal standardisation process. This will certainly make the search for quality
suppliers a lot easier. The capital Ljubljana, Bled in the northwest Alpine region and the northern Adriatic coastal resort
of Portoro_ are the main attractions they can present. The
upgraded airport will further help the country's development
as a business destination.
Ljubljana, meaning 'the beloved' is a charming, compact city
- everything can be done by foot through the narrow, cobbled streets, and over the many bridges over the Ljubljanica
river with the many restaurants and trendy bars on its banks.
Historic buildings are all over the place and can be used as
event venues: a medieval castle with seven event rooms plus a
courtyard, museums and galleries. The large university also has
its impact on the city, making it more youthful and vibrant.
Lake Bled can be reached in less than an hour from the capital
and its ancient castle on top of a cliff will offer breathtaking
views that make the trip more than worthwile.
The fascinating underworld space of the Postojna caves can be
the setting for business meetings, receptions, cultural events,
concerts, cocktail events or culinary experiences. They comprise six rooms plus a mansion at the cave entrance used for
award-winning, medieval-style dinners. The area also includes
the Lipica stud farm, the original home of the Lipizzaner white
horses.
Switch the urban scenery for the Alps after only a quick drive
and you'll have a whole range of winter activities at your
disposal. Kranjska Gora at the Austrian border is world-famous
among skiing fans, and there's also Maribor.
The mysterious beauty of the Alps is inherently and also apparently connected to the Mediterranean display of colour. You
could say that Slovenia is tucked in nicely between Vienna and
Venetia and that's something you'll notice when you come into
contact with the country and its people. They're efﬁcient but
they have ﬂair and they'll amaze you with their quality and
service.

Bosnia and Herzegovina wants to spread the message that
they're the heart-shaped country at the Adriatic Sea. Actually
the name of the country is bigger than the actual surface of it
on the map of Europe but still everybody knows the name of its
capital: Sarajevo. It doesn't have any giant buildings that spoil
the charm of the city and it even seems that the surround-

MIM > Europages

Sarajevo - Bosnia and Herzegovina

ing hills have protected it from any bad
inﬂuence. The region has known many different cultures however, as demonstrated
by the mosque, synagogue, Orthodox and
Catholic church close to each other. At
only 25 kilometres from Sarajevo the 1984
Winter Olympics were held, so you know
that you'll ﬁnd the diversity you need for a
business trip here.

Italy
Together with Spain, Italy is much appreciated for its Mediterranean climate and
cuisine but there's more to them than just
their main cities Madrid, Rome, Barcelona,
Milano. Try something new here and you'll
avoid the remark 'typical' when people talk

Como - Italy

about your next company trip.
In Italy, Venice could be your destination
to hold an intimate gala dinner or a true
masked ball, Umbria might provide the
perfect setting for a gastronomic discovery tour along the typical villages, the hills
around Lake Como are the ideal backdrop
for a more active approach and everybody
knows the reputation of the Italian brands
of sports cars, so why not get to know
them in their home town, up close and
personal?

Spain
In Spain, the typical andalusian city of
Jerez de la Frontera can show you what
Andalusia is all about: ﬂamenco, wine,

sherry, bodegas, bulls and horses. On top
of that, the city has a more than adequate
meeting infrastructure and its own Formula 1 track. The Basque Country may be one
of the most authentic regions in Europe,
up till now it has remained virgin territory
for meetings and incentives. However, if
you take into account that you ﬁnd the
highest concentration of Michelin-starred
restaurants in Spain here and that Bilbao
is home to the outrageously-designed
Guggenheim Museum, you may want to
reconsider. Following the example of this
landmark, Santiago Calatrave designed a
new airport and bridge and the city got an
award-winning metro system.

Ireland
Limerick - Ireland

You don't always have to include a visit to
the Guinness Storehouse to your Ireland
trip. Why not try out what the Irish countryside with its beautifully named places
like Limerick, Killarney or Donegal has to
offer instead? You can be part of the Irish
magic and tradition by cutting out the
turf yourself or participating in the Irish
Olympics with famous sports such as turf
stacking and hitting the sliothar, while
you're spending the night or dining in an
old Castle afterwards, and don't forget
to simply admire the unique landscape!
An animated lunch in a real Irish pub will
deﬁnitely add to the ambiance.

MIM 27

From 7 to 9 January 2010, the European
FederaƟon of AssociaƟons of Professional Conference Organisers – EFAPCO
- will hold its 4th Congress in the brand
new SQUARE. The central theme
“Sustainability and CompeƟƟveness in
the MeeƟngs Industry” comes precisely
within the remit of the European
Union’s DG Enterprise and Industry. A
wide range of topics will be tackled by
an impressive line-up of keynote
speakers who will prompt sƟmulaƟng
interacƟve debates with delegates
including some foremost industry
personaliƟes.

VAT in Europe for meeƟngs prescriptors
Sustainability : How to implement it in your meeƟngs
GeneraƟon Y: future leaders, future clients
Technology and new social media: who is in the driving seat?
StandardisaƟon in the MeeƟngs Industry
How to combine compeƟƟveness and sustainability

Let’s meet in Brussels!
All informaƟon on the congress is available
from the congress website at

www.efapco2010.eu
SPONSORS & CONTRIBUTORS

official carrier

MIM > Prince for a day 2009

Prince for
a Day 2009
in The Hague
Each year, on the day before the
Royal festivities of Princes Day,
conference and event professionals
from The Hague and Delft organise
their Prince For A Day networking
event, which has become a brand
within the meetings industry.
Fokker Terminal
In inspiring and entertaining
ways, the multi-programme event Key words during the 2009 edition of
showcased the attractions of the Prince For A Day were inspiration and
two cities for corporate, govern- creativity. MICE partners from The Hague
mental and association confer- and Delft presented themselves to conferorganisers in original and unexence organisers from The Neth- ence
pected ways as participants were swept
erlands, Belgium and the United up in a whirlwind of stimulating activities
and memorable experiences. This year’s
Kingdom.
PICTURES BY PHOTONIC

Each year, on the day before the Royal festivities of Princes Day, conference and event
professionals from The Hague and Delft
organise their Prince For A Day networking
event, which has become a brand within the
meetings industry. In inspiring and entertaining ways, the multi-programme event
showcased the attractions of the two cities
for corporate, governmental and association
conference organisers from The Netherlands, Belgium and the United Kingdom.

multi-tour programme included grafﬁti and
mind mapping workshops by the sea, a
'CHAOS' workshop set in what used to be
a cigarette factory as well as a hands-on
outdoor sand sculpting session. There were
visits to the Houses of Parliament and the
Peace Palace as well. Expert speakers, such
as Josephine Green (Philips Design), Rob
Davidson (University of Westminster) and
Ynzo van Zanten (Green Inc.) shared valuable insights and thought-provoking ways
of looking at a wide range of issues, both
related and unrelated to the conference
industry.

'Prince for a Day is an incredibly fun and efﬁcient initiative to get acquainted to the
meeting and incentive facilities in and around The Hague. We were literally and ﬁguratively treated like princes and princesses and were really pampered on a gastronomic
level. The programme was diverse and the lectures were an interesting extra. This
trip gave me a whole range of new contacts, and that always comes in handy in the
Meetings Industry. Thank you very much, The Hague! I hope I can use your facilities as
soon as possible.'
Sarah Beyens (right), Q8

All participants reunited in the early evening
at the beautiful Voorlinden manor house,
where the day’s creative experiences were
shared in a great atmosphere of excitement,
inspiration and friendship. Prince For A Day
2009 exceeded all expectations!
For more information and all
photographs, please visit
www.prinsvooreendag.com
Marianne Hoogeveen,
Account Manager Belux,
marianne@contourconsult.be

'There were some very good culinary achievements and there is quite a lot of
potential. The Spaansche Hof was a top location that exceeded our expectations and
was just great and also Landgoed Voorlinden seemed very suitable for my clients. I
would recommend combining culture and venues a bit more, unfortunately we were
not able to see much of the town centre of The Hague during the event. Also I would
recommend to give the international guests a choice of routes next time'
Patrick De Leersnijder, BNP Paribas Fortis

MIM 29

MIM > Groningen & Dutch Frisian Islands

Beach sailing

Welcome in Groningen
& Dutch Frisian Islands
We already announced it in our previous issue and we were part of it:
from 21 till 23 August the Groningen Congres Bureau and Netherlands
Board of Tourism & Conventions (NBTC) came up with a programme to
let us discover the North of the country.

On a sunny Friday morning I joined a
group of 15 people on the way from Antwerp to Groningen by bus. The organisers
chose this means of transport because it's
the best way to let your guests mingle, but
don't forget that Groningen also has its
own airport, Groningen Airport Eelde.

And indeed, we did ﬁnd out a couple of things. For instance, now we
know that at a mere four hours from Brussels there's a place that's
the living proof that the Netherlands is more than tulips and Gouda
cheese. And if you're the person that thinks highly of 'sustainability',
then you'll be glad to see a city and a region where cycling is the best
way to get from A to B. But as you read along, you'll notice that we
encountered even more original means of transport.
TEXT SOPHIE MOLLE AND STEVEN KINS

mixture of old and modern buildings that
reﬂect a harmonious architecture.

little secrets around town. The Fish Market
is a must-see, but so is the Martini Church.

But Groningen is also a young city due
to the 40,000 students, and we even got
to take part in a remake of Baywatch together with scantily-dressed students who
were running in slow-motion alongside the
canals with the music of the show in the
background...

King Bicycle

Along the canals
When we arrived in Groningen along the
canals, Michiel, our 'skipper', and Astrid,
our guide, were waiting for us in a a small
boat . He spent the entire afternoon with
us to show 'his Groningen'. This tour
along the water took us to the ICT, Central
Station, the Groninger Museum... It's
deﬁnitely a great and original way to get a
ﬁrst impression of a city. In turn, we saw a

MIM 30

Back on solid ground Astrid showed us the

Standing in front of the NH Hotel de Ville, I
noticed that the Netherlands being a bike
country is not a myth: there's more bikes
than motor vehicles and most of the city
centre is a low-trafﬁc zone, which is great
for the environment as well as for getting
some exercise.

MIM > Groningen & Dutch Frisian Islands

Here you get
authenticity
and simplicity,
and there's also
an audience for
these values
Groningen - full of bikes and young people

The director of the NH Hotel, Egbert
Brinks, accompanied us to Nienoord
Castle where Wilma Haket welcomed us
in a private park to open the gates to the
castle for us. With the setting sun in the
background she started telling us the history of the castle that dates back to 1525,
and that after some renovation works it's
now used as an event venue. When we
pulled up a chair at the dinner table she
rang a bell and just like in the olden days
she announced every single dish - one
was even more delicious than the other. In
short, an original evening in an exceptional setting.

A lifeboat comes to the rescue
The next morning we were dressed in
life jackets and stepped on a rescue boat
under way to the Dutch Frisian Islands,
Terschelling to be more precise. The
combination of the comforting sun rays
and the salty water were a true pleasure.
Of course, there's a more comfortable and
quicker ferry service available if you're on
a tight schedule, but this really is the most
fun. Peter of the Frissewind Events agency
welcomed us and his words will really give
you an idea of what you can expect: 'Here,
we're not constantly trying to propose
more and more, but we can give you what
we have: authenticity and simplicity, and
there's also an audience for these values.'

A discovery by bike
Discovering the island is done by bike
because the streets are very narrow and
there are only a few cars. Everyone goes

The lifeboat

along according to his or her own rhythm
and becomes part of the island. Peter
made us discover an old little theatre
with red seats, a tiny stage and numerous theatre and ﬁlm posters. This venue
can accommodate about ﬁfty people and
is often booked by companies wishing to
invest in a more personalized infrastructure. Afterwards we visited the largest
hotel on the island, the Golden Tulip with
its magniﬁcent sea view.
A picnic was provided on the shore of a
natural lake where a forester explained us
what the island can offer and what vegetation can be found. The thing that matters
most is that everybody contributes in
order to preserve the nature on the island.
But I look around and noticed how peaceful it was, time stood still, the sky was
perfectly blue, the people on the island are
all charming, in a word, there isn’t a cloud
in the sky.

Hanging on to the kite

Teambuilding to the max
The afternoon was a bit more dynamic
with some teambuilding activities on the
beach, more precisely golf and kite initiations. Golf took quite some concentration
and the kite demanded some power and
self-control. But without a doubt, beach
sailing was the most fun. It looks a bit
complicated during the ﬁrst few try-outs
but in the end it's quite easy. The only
determining factor is the presence - or lack
of - wind. Luckily we were accompanied by
a nice breeze, so we enjoyed the experience.

A boat tour through Groningen

We only stayed one night on Terschelling in the Sandton hotel where we were
offered some refreshments by the director
Marion Riemersma, and we already want
to come back, be it for work or pleasure.
info@groningencongresbureau.nl
www.groningencongresbureau.nl

MIM 31

MIM > Switzerland

+ Switzerland

Where the world meets
(and competes)

During the last weekend of August the Switzerland Convention &
Incentive Bureau organized – for the ﬁfth year in a row – the Switzerland Meeting Trophy between teams from several countries:
Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom,
the Nordic and the North-American countries.
As the ﬁrst FAM-trip I ever took part in, it proved to be a most
memorable and remarkable baptism. We, Team Belgium, enthusiastically took part in the rally, going even so far as to wear
matching clothes in the national colours and trying to bribe the
other teams with chocolates. Sadly, thanks to our mediocre performance in the physical tests, we lost – proving that brain does
not always win out over brawn.
TEXT IGOR HENDRICKX

Diverse Zürich
Zürich, the economical and cultural capital
of Switzerland and one of the cities with
the highest quality of life in the world, was
our ﬁrst stop. We ﬂew with Swiss International Airlines, which offers interesting
fares for meetings and incentive partici-

MIM 32

pants. Zürich Airport is connected to more
than 150 destinations and is fully integrated in the Swiss rail network. That way,
you can reach the city centre of Zürich in
under 8 minutes. We, however, were taken
by EuropCar to the Hotel Zürichberg. This
hotel with a historic exterior and a warm,

modern interior is located high above the
city in a peaceful forest. That evening we
could take part in a ‘soirée été’ on the
terrace with its magniﬁcent view over
the lights of the city and surrounding
countryside. This was our ﬁrst contact
with Switzerland’s most beautiful asset: its
unspoiled and versatile nature.
The ofﬁcial welcome and presentation
took place the next morning on a boat
trip. We took our breakfast surrounded by
the turquoise waters of Lake Zürich. We

MIM > Switzerland

met the other teams, each got a backpack
and a personalized vest and a rally book
with questions and tests to be ﬁlled in
the coming weekend. Armed with these
presents, we climbed the mountains to the
legendary cigar-shaped red train “Churchill”. It was built for the National Exhibition
in 1939 and after a recent restoration can
be used for meetings and other events.
Next stop: Lucerne.

Festive Lucerne
Lucerne is the location of many famous
festivals, fairs and other large and international events. When we left the railway
station, we found ourselves in the very
centre of the historic city. In the immediate
vicinity of the station we found the Culture
and Convention Center Lucerne and
many ﬁve and four star hotels. Lucerne
combines lots of professional experience
organizing large events with easy accessibility and dedicated infrastructure. I can’t
emphasize enough how impressive the
modern convention centre is. The multifunctional building overlooks the historic
centre, the river and the lake and employs
large windows and reﬂection pools to create wide open spaces inside and outside.
A wide variety of events can be organized
in several large halls, rooms, foyers or on
the terraces.
After enjoying a small reception and
a pedalo race on the lake, we received
the keys to three rental cars: a convertible, a business sedan and a small van. A
chequered ﬂag waved us away on our next
stop. The journey was a memorable experience by itself, especially in the convertible,
because the scenic road to Interlaken let
us enjoy many beautiful vistas over lakes,
mountains and valleys.
On the way to Interlaken we stopped for
lunch in Ballenberg, an open air museum,
displaying traditional buildings and
architecture from all over Switzerland. We
spent an enjoyable rustic afternoon there,
before we returned to the road.

Splendorous Interlaken
The spectacular alpine landscape around
Interlaken makes a perfect backdrop for
memorable conferences and events, as
they’ve been for more than a hundred
years. The historic Casino Kursaal, the
centre of the meetings industry in Interlaken, will soon receive a new annex with
a capacity for up to 1200 people. The leg-

endary hotels in the neighbourhood exude
the heady atmosphere of an age long past
and the excellence of modern service.
The ﬁrst disappointment of the trip took
place that evening: we heard that the
Nordic team had taken the lead. Luckily
we could drown away our sorrows with
the excellent cheese fondue dinner, while
enjoying a most amusing ﬂoor show.
The next morning we rode by bus to the
Schilthorn cable car, which would take us
up to Piz Gloria. This revolving restaurant
was the location for most of the scenes
in ‘On her Majesty’s Secret Service’ and
offers an exhilarating view of Switzerland’s
highest mountain tops. It certainly was exhilarating, but not the only possibility to do
something sporty in group: Interlaken still
is a centre of winter and summer sport.

Cultural Basel
Basel, historic city of art and culture, was
our ﬁnal stop of the trophy. To get there,
we took a special train, complete in Belle
Epoque style. We lunched onboard as if
we were on the legendary Orient Express.
This train, like the ‘Churchill’, is yet another
example of the many possibilities that the
Swiss trains offer. In fact, the rail network
is Switzerland’s other main asset. Whether
you’re just travelling from A to B or hold a
meeting, followed by a lavish dinner, you can
be certain of a personal and perfect service.
Basel is regarded as one of Switzerland's
centres for art, music and architecture.
Thanks to its central location at the 'three-

countries-corner' where Switzerland,
Germany and France meet, the city on the
elbow of the Rhine is also an important
centre for fairs and congresses. A visit to
the ‘Vincent van Gogh – Between Earth and
Heaven’ exposition proved extremely interesting. The Meeting Trophy was concluded
in the Art Deco Badischer Banhof with a
banquet and party.
The reaction of all participants to the Fifth
Meeting Trophy was overwhelmingly positive, which is a rarity in an industry
of perfectionists. Then again, events in
Switzerland are run like Swiss clockwork.

The North of France becomes increasingly attractive to organize events,
especially thanks to its accessibility and proximity, but you need top-level
venues to complete the offer. Nicolas Couton is the new Regional Commercial
Manager for the North & Benelux at Lucien Barrière Hotels & Casinos and he
can tell us something more about this new Lucien Barrière property.

Are you a new Ch’ti?
Nicolas Couton: 'Yes, I’m from La Baule where I’ve
been working for 3 years for Lucien Barrière Hotels.
I recently arrived in Lille to prepare the launch
of the new Hotel Casino Barrière Lille which opens
in February 2010 in the business district of Lille.
I can recommend a stroll around the old quarter
of ‘Vieux Lille’, which is crammed with restaurants,
bars and boutiques... I love the ‘Rue de Gand’ which
is pedestrian-only on summer evenings and covered
with restaurant tables.'

Could you say it's more than
just a Casino?
Nicolas: 'Yes, much more! It’s a new destination
inside the city. The Casino will be open by the end
of the year and the entire complex by February 2010.
It will include a hotel with 142 guestrooms & suites for
which the 5-star classiﬁcation is on its way, a Wellness
Centre with hamman, sauna, massage, 3 restaurants
and 4 theme bars, meeting rooms covering 800 m²,
and a Theatre with 1200 seats and a variety of musical
shows. Anything is possible here!'

What did you think of Lille?

Any ideas for the event organizer?

Nicolas: 'I remember my ﬁrst visit in March 2009 for
Festival XXL, when I was immediately knocked out by
the sheer vibrancy of Lille. It’s also a very entrepreneurial and Europe-facing city full of contrasts.
'And the new Hotel Casino Barrière with its 44,000m²
of space for events, gaming & entertainment,
right at the heart of Euralille, will help reinforce
Lille’s attractiveness both to the general public and
to major event organisers.'

Nicolas: 'We can propose lots of activities. Of course
Casino Nights are part of our programme. You can
let your group be escorted by a Casino Coach who
will explain how all the machines work and what are
the rules of each game. But our partner agencies
are developing new incentive ideas like puzzle and
orienteering courses with a road book written in the
'ch'ti' dialect, or an eco-responsible incentive that
will make your group members aware of sustainable
development in a playful, fun and ecological
atmosphere.'

Is this an important addition
for the Lucien Barrière Group?
Nicolas: 'Yes, this is our ﬁrst development in the North
and it’s deﬁnitely a new generation of establishments
with a daring architecture and an unequalled level
of comfort and service. We have two things at stake
– to become a new benchmark for business & leisure
events and to market a new business concept in
a difﬁcult economic climate.'

'A small country is an advantage for everyone,'
says Olivier Barbieux, Director of the Luxembourg
Tourist Ofﬁce in Brussels, and he adds:
'Luxembourg may have the size of a region
but it has the independence of a state.'
That's one of the main advantages of the
Grand Duchy, certainly if you link that to
its favourable position on the European
map - literally and ﬁguratively.
When we were there, we absolutely loved the contrast between the bustling city life and the relaxing peace and quiet in the countryside... with an extra European touch. What has struck us even
more during our visit was the speed with which new projects and developments are underway. But
these lady and gentlemen will give you an exact idea about what's going on in Luxembourg: Pierre
Barthelmé, Executive Counselor 1st Class at the Ministry of Tourism and Chairman of the Board of
Luxembourg Congrès, Roland Pinnel, Director of the Luxembourg City Tourist Ofﬁce, Jean-Jacques
Knaff, Director of Luxembourg Congrès, and Sarina Migge of the Luxembourg Convention Bureau.
INTERVIEW AND TEXT SOPHIE MOLLE AND STEVEN KINS

MIM: How do you see the future of the
meetings industry for Luxembourg, especially considering the recent efforts that
were made?
Roland Pinnel: 'The current trend towards
short-haul destinations puts Luxembourg
City in a privileged position. Having its
largest share of clients within Europe, it's
ideally situated in the heart of Europe and
therefore easily accessible. Luxembourg is
an authentic, secure and dynamic capital,
in constant growth, especially in terms of
the infrastructure offered, with a combination of the new and the old, purpose-built
or unusual venues combined with an
excellent selection of support services

MIM 36

and qualiﬁed providers. Multilingual, with
an open spirit and excellent means of
communication, our capital city is and
will stay a privileged place of welcome.
The Luxembourg Convention Bureau, the
ofﬁcial conference bureau of the city of
Luxembourg will, even more than before
as a principle of solidarity, promote the
destination as a whole with its partners.'
Pierre Barthelmé: 'Due to recent developments in seminar and conference
infrastructure, both in the capital and
throughout the country, the Grand Duchy
of Luxembourg intends to assert its rightful place among the medium-capacity

European meeting and incentive cities and
regions.
'The recently (re-)opened the European Conference Centre in LuxembourgKirchberg is one of the many venues in
Luxembourg, next to the great hall of
the Philharmonie, the Municipal Grand
Theater or the Cultural and Meeting
Center Neumünster Abbey. Across the
country, there's also the Cultural, Tourist
and Congress Centre Trifolion in Echternach, the Cube521 in the Ardennes in
Marnach, or the usual suspects such as
the Domaine Thermal or Casino2000 in
Mondorf, to name but a few.'

MIM > LuXembourg > Intro

'Thanks to recent
developments
in seminar and
conference infrastructure the
Grand Duchy of
Luxembourg
intends to assert
its rightful place'

MIM: It's obvious that the new Conference
Centre will play an important role.
Barthelmé: 'Luxembourg is often in the
spotlight on the news in Europe because
of its status as one of the three capitals of
Europe: indeed, the meetings of the Councils of Ministers of the EU are held here
and have necessitated an in-depth upgrade
of our European Conference Centre. This
being done, we intend to capitalize on that
reputation to communicate that these
magniﬁcent facilities are available to
any company or organization to hold its
congress or seminar outside the months of
April, June and October when the sessions
of the '27' are held in Luxembourg.'
Jean-Jacques Knaff: 'Don't forget that
we're not really a conference centre. It has
been built for the European Minister Council, with speciﬁc requirements in mind. It
requires a closed-off centre, while it needs
to be open and accessible for conferences.
Nonetheless, we have tested every possible event, even a fashion show and a disco
- and it was the best disco in Luxembourg,
I may say. For a special event we once
put cushions on the ﬂoor of our loft-style
room and we invited some musicians with
a cello and a harp to create the perfect
atmosphere. Everything had one colour:
the main dish was one colour, the dessert
another, and so on. Every evening a lot of
passers-by stop and look inside because
the light show looks so impressive.
'It's a prestigious centre with a lot of wood
in the interior, and when there is an exhibition everything needs to be protected,
which is not obvious. The prestige is shown
in the lights in the auditorium; if you replace one, you have to replace all of them,
which takes two to three weeks. Cleaning
all the windows even takes one month.
'Since we have ﬂoor heating, car presentations are impossible because they are too
heavy. But we have a wonderful site which
is close to the Philharmonie. We had Vodafone UK and they're returning in 2010,
and we also had a lot of pharmaceutical
companies, lawyer associations...

Pierre Barthelmé

'We don't have exclusive partners, except
for catering, because we consider our
reputation to be extremely important.
Since it is the same catering as for the
ministers - and they are happy - it has to
be very good.'
Sarina Migge: 'Another fact about the Centre to point out is that it is a very secure
location because of its speciﬁc concept.'

MIM: How do you promote the centre and
the destination?
Knaff: 'The European Minister Council
will occupy this conference centre three
months a year: in April, June and October,
and then the city will be packed. That
means there are nine months left, which
is the reason why we, as Luxembourg
Congrès, are making promotion for this
centre and for the Grand Duchy. Of course
it is important that you have enough
capacity to accommodate people, so it is
easier to sell the centre and then the rest
of the available accommodations in the
destination.'
Barthelmé: 'In my capacity as Chairman
of the Board of Directors of Luxembourg
Congrès and my duties in the Ministry
for Tourism, I can perfectly combine the
resources of both Luxembourg Congress,

a Luxembourg City Convention Bureau, a
National Tourist Ofﬁce and our tourist representations abroad. To demonstrate the
importance of the MICE segment to the
Luxembourg Government, the declaration
of the government programme of the new
government mentions the development of
this economic activity.
'Of course we are present at the main
professional fairs like CONFEX, IMEX and
EMIF but we complement this with fam
trips, road shows, round-tables with professionals whom we meet in the different
European markets. Often, our Embassies
are valuable partners in this approach.'

from left to right:
Sylvie Meyer, Olivier Barbieux, Sarina Migge and Jean-Jacques Knaff
in the European Conference Centre

MIM 37

MIM > LuXembourg > Intro

Roland Pinnel

Knaff: 'Luxembourg is a cosmopolitan
village. Filling up the conference centre
equals promoting the destination because
people visit the city and return afterwards,
be it for business or pleasure. We do not
accommodate groups under 300 people,
so we send those to another location in
Luxembourg. Once they visit Luxembourg,
they see that everything is close-by.'
Migge: 'We let people choose their hotel
according to their budget, but we are able
to offer them a wide range of possibilities
within close proximity of each other.'

MIM: Apart from the new hotels that are
opening, are there any future projects that
the public might be interested in?
Pinnel: 'The new Conference Centre on
Kirchberg is partially opened. The ﬁnal
renovation phase will be terminated by the
end of 2012. The Cité / Cercle complex, a
cultural and business meeting place right
in the downtown area, will open in two
steps: the Cité ofﬁcially in January 2010
and the Cercle building beginning of 2011.

'The current trend
towards short-haul
destinations puts
Luxembourg City in a
privileged position'
Furthermore a tramway is planned, connecting the train station, the airport and
the Kirchberg plateau with the city centre.'
Barthelmé: 'To accommodate participants
in conferences, seminars and incentives
that we wish to draw to Luxembourg, the
capacity of the hotel infrastructure has
been expanded or modernized. Several hotel projects have emerged in Luxembourg
City, or will open their doors soon: Soﬁtel
& Novotel in the station area, in addition
to their presence in the Kirchberg plateau,
the Melia group opposite the Conference
Centre Kirchberg and the castle-hotel
Urspelt in the Ardennes, near Clervaux
will soon be joined by the hotel 'The Place
d'Armes' in a listed building on the square
that bears the same name and the 'Suitehotel' Accor, also in Kirchberg.'
Migge: 'There are also a few other novelties in Luxembourg like the Rives de
Clausen, and a new 4-star hotel next to the
brasserie Mansfeld, in a beautiful location
next to the river and near the Casemates.'

Légère Premium Hotel Luxembourg

Olivier Barbieux: 'I can only add that
spring next year will see the opening of a
new-generation design hotel in Munsbach:
the Légère Premium Hotel Luxembourg.
This four-star property will be located near
the airport and will have 156 rooms and
400 square metres of conference space.'

'We have tested
every possible event
in the European
Conference Centre,
even a fashion show
and a disco - and it
was the best disco
in Luxemburg,
I may say'

NH Luxembourg
A nice view and easy accessibility when ﬂying in from abroad, where
can you ﬁnd that? The only answer: NH Luxembourg ****. It's right
next to the new airport, but strangely enough you don't get awakened at night by a plane that's ﬂying over, and you have a wonderful
180 degree view from the fourth ﬂoor meeting room where you feel
as if you're inside the control tower of the airport itself. The hotel
recently had some major behind-the-scenes refurbishments, which
have made the hotel an even better place to stay.
Contact:
T: +352 340 571 - F: +352 3489319413
nhluxembourg@nh-hotels.com
www.nh-hotels.com

According to Thai Luong of the Melia, Luxembourg is a vibrant location, as proven by the free concerts on Sunday morning, for instance with the Simple Minds, and we deﬁnitely won't challenge his
point. On one side you have the characteristic, elegant side of the city that's been kept up to date,
which is perfectly illustrated by the Place d'Armes hotel, a historic building that has been restored
marvellously. On the other side you have the modern, more 'design' aspect which you ﬁnd in the
Soﬁtel Luxembourg Le Grand Ducal and the Grand Hôtel Victor Hugo for instance.

Place d'Armes
The main thing they want to do is preserve
the character of the old building, but this
has some consequences of course. No two
rooms are alike and everything had to be
tailor-made, so we don't have to tell you
that no trouble or expense was spared in
this project that will open at the end of
2009. Three different styles are combined
in a perfect balance: modern, baroque
and art-deco, and all over the place real
design pieces can be admired. A lounge
bar, brasserie, restaurant, wine-vault and
a wellness centre complete the already
marvellous picture.

Grand Hôtel Victor Hugo
A new name in Luxembourg is always
refreshing, and this one deﬁnitely is. The
Grand Hôtel Victor Hugo **** is a design
boutique hotel with a perfect location in
between the city centre and Kirchberg.
The 40 rooms and 5 suites each have
their own colour according to the ﬂoor
they're on and the sales director, Mr.
Castellanetta, is very proud of some of

the famous guests he's already welcomed
in his property. The 3-star Hôtel Victor
Hugo across the street copies some of the
characteristics of its bigger brother but in
a looser atmosphere.

Château de Septfontaines
We arrived at the castle and we were
actually interrupting on a movie set,
that was an immediate indication of how
well-preserved this property really is.
It's located next to the Villeroy & Boch
factory and was the home of the Boch
brothers. Christian Coljon wanted to stress
two things: the ﬂexibility of the different
spaces (there's more than 3000m2 of
event space) and the contrast between
the château and the industrial grounds,
because you can actually choose between
the smaller meeting rooms in the castle
or the bigger spaces in the old factory.
Christian is also president of No Borders
which organizes concerts that promote
the connection between cultures all
around the world.

Alvisse Parc
It's not exactly in the city centre, but it's
really nearby, and still you feel as if you're
in the forests. If you need a large amount
of rooms, the Alvisse Parc **** is a good
alternative with its 765 beds divided over
245 rooms and 95 studios. Mireille Micoud
was proud to tell that the lobby, the bar
and the restaurant are being refurbished,
which will give the hotel a new appearance. A major asset is the 1300m2 Europe
meeting room.

Hilton
Close to the Alvisse Parc lies a true monument among the Luxembourg hotels, the
Hilton Luxembourg *****. It towers above
the quiet Gruneward Forest and this ensures a superb view from one of the 337
guest rooms, 15 meeting rooms, Indigo
Restaurant or Bar Mezzo. Surely the Hilton
brand stands for quality and business will
deﬁnitely feel important here, as proven
by the business centre which is open 24/7.

MIM 39

MIM > LuXembourg

37°

37° IN LUXEMBOURG is the ﬁrst
'green' meeting place of the Grand
Duchy, the newest conference
centre and event venue of Luxembourg
city, an architectural piece of art

Human Warmth
37° is nestled in the Cloche d’Or business
park with a breathtaking view of green surroundings. An open deck invites for coffee
breaks and after-work parties. The facades
of the two adjacent buildings offer an excellent advertisement space when illuminated
at night for events of all kinds. German architect Stephan Braunfels calls 37° his ﬁrst
masterpiece in Luxembourg. The owning
company matched architectural purism with
minimalistic Italian furniture: Elipse tables
and Verner Panton S chairs, the combination is predominantly modern. The building
is managed by a group of people known for
their professionalism in event productions,
your event will be in experienced hands.
Contact: Annik Paquay
Impasse Drosbach
1882 Cloche d'Or, Luxembourg
T: +352 661 37 37 00
meet@37inluxembourg.com

Restaurant Le Pétrusse
Restaurant ‘Le Petrusse’ is a specialist in hosting and entertaining large groups. The restaurant offers you a magniﬁcent
view of the Petrusse valley and is ideally located within
3 minutes walking distance of the old city centre.
Whether it’s for breakfast, lunch, dinner or a cabaret night, restaurant ‘Le Petrusse’ can receive around 180 guests in a warm
and welcoming atmosphere.
info@restaurantlepetrusse.com
www.restaurantlepetrusse.com

MIM 40

Luxembourg Visit Tours
YOUR INCOMING AGENCY IN LUXEMBOURG:
Our specialty: the ‘Three Borders Country’
Our desire: to be at your service for the conception of trips
across our country
Our hope: to share with your friends our knowledge and our
love of Luxembourg

info@luxembourg-visittours.com
www.luxembourg-visittours.com

MIM > LuXembourg > Le Royal

Hotel Le Royal Luxembourg

Get the Royal
Treatment
Le Royal is part of the Leading Hotels of the World, so you know
this is not your ordinary hotel. It was a hot day in the Grand
Duchy and at noon Florence Pichon escorted us through the
restaurant 'La Pomme Cannelle' with its new chef, to the sunny
terrace where someone was preparing deliciously smelling
summer food on the barbecue for the guests of the outdoor
restaurant 'Le Jardin'. Nonetheless, Florence quickly had our
full attention for what she had to say about Le Royal.

Although this is a ﬁve-star hotel, it recently received the Ecolabel rating for its
commitment to preserving the environment. They promote the use of bikes and
public transport, they sort and recycle
waste, print on recycled paper, use ecofriendly maintenance products,... In short,
they really make an effort to be 'green'.
Accessibility is no problem either, since
the hotel arranges a shuttle service to the
train station and the airport.
There are 210 rooms, of which 32 Royal
Club rooms that have a private elevator
with direct access to this new wing. In the
latter you're also pampered with Hermès
products in the bathroom. If you want to
feel special, this is the exclusive environment you're looking for.
If you're wondering whether or not this
property can handle top-level events, we
heard the reassuring news that recently
the Elite Model Casting was held in the
Salon des Roses, which can accommodate
a maximum of 600 people. How's that for
a reference? But if you're in a more lowkey mood, just install yourself in the Piano
bar, sit back and enjoy the atmosphere.
And when you need even more thorough

relaxation, head to the health club with
its heated swimming pool, exercise room,
massage room, beauty salon, sauna, hammam and solarium.
And the future is still promising for this
well-established name in Luxembourg
because Florence promised they want to
keep on working on their 'business proﬁle'
in order to respond to what matters most
to business clients, and although there
are already nine meeting rooms, she
mysteriously added that more projects
were planned.

MeeTincS
The missing piece to your success
The Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg is ideally located for the organisation of a congress, an exhibition,
a conference... At the heart of Europe, within easy reach and providing an infrastructure in constant
evolution, Luxembourg and MeeTincS are in a position to meet your expectations.
In 2008 Marcel A.M. Vissers, our own
editor in chief gave MeeTincS the ‘Award
for the Biggest Buzz’ at the EMIF. This was
just another of many crowning moments
for a company that has been an important player in the Luxembourg meetings
industry for over 12 years. Why? The
answer is simple. MeeTincS combines in
one company four essential parts of the
meetings industry.
From preparing to ﬁnalising your event,
MeeTincS is there to face any challenge,
plan for the unexpected and check each
detail. From simple staff parties with an
Oktoberfest theme to 3-day motivation
trips to Marrakech. From oenological
hunts in the exclusive Caves Saint Martin
of Remich to team building workshops for
the Glory of Uruk. These incentives will

meet your expectations anywhere and
anytime.
A PCO’s job is never done. Before, during
and after your congresses and conferences MeeTincS’ experienced and multilingual
team will take care of, amongst other
things, ﬁnding a venue, booking hotel
rooms, designing a website, social programme, follow-up, publishing documents,
... It doesn’t matter if it’s a seminar, a
conference, a congress, a training session
or an exhibition, each event gets its own
personal and speciﬁc approach.
With the globalization of political, economical, social and cultural relations,
hardly any events are left where all participants have the same mother tongue.
Having interpreters on stand-by will create
an atmosphere of trust and congeniality,
but is easier said than done. MeeTincS has
a team of translators and interpreters at
your disposal to translate in the shortest
of time and into 60 different languages.
All are bound by the strictest professional
secrecy. In a business where each word
is worth gold and has to reach its target,
they only select the very best.
Even if you’ve decided to organise your
event by yourself, without MeeTincS professional assistance, you can still rely on
them to provide the very best equipment.
Their equipment is constantly updated
and state-of-the-art. Simultaneous translation, conference sound systems, video,
wireless voting system ... The material is
of such high quality that it has been used
for both Luxembourg presidencies of the
European Union (1997 and 2005). Your
event will be supported by their technology and their technology will be supported
by their technicians: tailored know-how.

MIM 42

Teambuilding in the Caves Saint Martin

MeeTincS is there to
face any challenge, plan
for the unexpected and
check each detail
To sum up: MeeTincS will help you with
the organisation of any kind of meeting or
incentive, translation and interpretation
and with rental equipment. Their professionalism and experience are supported
by a long list of references, including the
accession of Grand Duke Henri, a NATO
summit, dozens of meetings of foreign
Heads of States in Luxembourg, the Benelux IFA Seminar of 2003, ...
meetincs@meetincs.lu
www.meetincs.lu

n

MIM > LuXembourg > Moselle

Moselle
A European Landmark
You've probably read the name Moselle already on some wine label,
but this region in the South East of the country has more to offer
than that. It's named after the river that separates it from Germany,
a river that is in this case also a condominium - it belongs to Luxembourg and Germany at the same time. That's why it was the scene of
one of the landmarks in the history of a uniﬁed Europe.
Schengen
Yes, Schengen is a village in Luxembourg!
That was the ﬁrst remark of Martina
Kneip of the Schengen Tourist Ofﬁce.
In 2010 - 14 June to be exact - they're
celebrating the 25th anniversary of the
signing of the Schengen agreement, the
event that gave this little place its spot
in the history books. This is still remembered by the Europe memorial stone.
The European Centre is currently being
transformed into a sort of a museum, a
documentation centre to be exact, with
a permanent exhibition on Europe and
the Schengen agreement. The ofﬁcial
opening is planned during the ofﬁcial
festivities in the presence of the Ministers
for Foreign Affairs on 14 June 2010. But
Martina ensured us that the city is more

Commemorative monument for the Schengen Agreement

than just the agreement, even Victor
Hugo was here. As a proof, there's a
painting of the Château de Schengen that
the French writer made. In the Europa
Museum a small room and a cosy cellar
are available for cocktail events.
The MS Princesse Marie-Astrid played an
important role in the history of Europe.
It was on this ship that the Schengen
agreement was signed by the leaders of
Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, thus creating
a Europe without frontiers. This place
where Germany, France and Luxembourg
meet, was the perfect symbolic location for this. Now themed seminars on
the water can be held along different
trajectories. The boat stops along the
way and the passengers can take the bus
to Trier for instance. Easter 2010 will be
the time that the new ship will see the
light. Of course, Princess Marie-Astrid
will be there to inaugurate it. From mid
March to June and from September to
mid November the ship can be privatized.
The same people also run the Wine House
and Museum in Ehnen which is great for
up to 180 people and this place will also
be renovated, in order to give the region
another new asset.
Bernard Massard is a name that rings a
bell when you're talking about wines in
the Moselle region. We can imagine that
you're immediately thinking about blind
tastings and sampling some local products - and this is of course possible here but the property which lies alongside the
Moselle river also has enough space for
events. First of all, you have the entrance

Caves Bernard Massard

hall for 100 people and a smaller room
which is perfect for buffets, then there's
another room for 40 people which is built
like a wine-cellar and on the ﬁrst ﬂoor
there's room for 100 people in a seated
arrangement with access to the terrace
and a view of the river.
Mondorf-les-bains is a rather exclusive
town in the south of the region, at the
French border, famed for its spa treatments, and the most reputed name in
that area has to be the Domaine Thermal
of Mondorf (see further on). Casino 2000
is another big name in Mondorf-les-Bains.
The staff aims to fulﬁl every possible wish
an event organiser might have, be it in
one of the three restaurants or the eight
private salons.

MIM 43

MIM > LuXembourg > Mondorf Parc Hotel

Mondorf Parc Hotel

Al Thermen

Attila Laszlo joined us for breakfast on the terrace of the Mondorf
Parc Hotel and from our ďŹ rst impression and the friendly tone
in his voice, we could tell that he's not at all as savage as his
name might suggest. On the contrary, he was more than happy to
welcome us in his hotel and show us around the domain - and yes,
it's more than big enough to rightfully call it a domain!

But ďŹ rst of all he wanted to focus on Luxembourg as a meeting destination because
of the good accessibility and the knowledge
for organising mid-scale meetings and business events. Mondorf Parc Hotel is not only
a thermal centre, he assured us, but also
a business location where you can have
residential seminars. The main building,
the four-star Mondorf Parc Hotel, has 113
rooms, 30 identical suites. Two restaurants
on the site; a cool bistrot atmosphere in the
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Maus KĂ¤ttiâ&#x20AC;? and the â&#x20AC;&#x153;De Jangeliâ&#x20AC;? offers
a modern design where the red sets off
nicely against the grey.

you can also book twin rooms now, and
free WiFi is installed throughout the hotel.
The â&#x20AC;&#x153;Al Thermenâ&#x20AC;?, or old spa, has been
completely renovated and now houses a
ballroom that can be combined with the
amphitheatre in the neighbouring Waasserhaus or with the historical Orangerie, a
great location for elegant events.

To respond to the business market two
new renovations have already been done:

domaine@mondorf.lu
www.mondorf.lu

where

Ballroom

Then there's also the Mondorf Le Club
which groups the sports and spa activities
- or Tonic and Zen as they call it -, and if we
look at the offer, it's no wonder that Attila
stays in shape.

Kirchberg
In Luxembourg City most national and European institutions
have their headquarters in the Kirchberg quarter. It’s no
wonder that a lot of meeting and incentive possibilities can
be found on this plateau overlooking the city centre: Utopolis,
D’Coque Arena, LuxExpo, and of course the Conference Centre.
There are even special guided architecture tours in this part
of town. Two atypical yet interesting locations deserve special
mention: the Philharmonie Luxembourg and the Mudam.
The Philharmonie Luxembourg is
Luxembourg’s national concert hall,
the grand auditorium which can seat
over 1500 people. The bold curves of
Portzamparc’s Philharmonie form an
exceptional setting for musical, artistic
events or conferences. If you pass by
after dark, you certainly can't miss the
Philharmonie.
Maybe even more exclusive as an
event location is the Grand Duke Jean

Museum of Modern Art or Mudam. The
museum stands on the site of the old
Fort Thüngen, parts of which have been
rebuilt.

Melia Luxembourg
The new Melia with its modern and
'design' approach is deﬁnitely a worthy
addition to the Kirchberg area. Thai Luong
informed us that this is not really a conference hotel but then again that's not really
necessary because they're right next to

Europe Square

the Conference Centre. However, there is
a meeting room for 150 people and the
Italian restaurant is also accessible for
exterior guests. At the back of the hotel
there's now a new street that leads to the
city centre down a winding road, which
is a great alternative for the traditional
route along the main roads. Then he took
us to a suite on the top ﬂoor and said:
'Have a look at the best view of Luxembourg!' And how right he was.

Luxexpo is located on the very outskirts
of the city, looking out over the green
countryside. Perfect if you’re in need of
a peaceful location. Its actual distance
from the city is negligible with its own
tram stop, a direct bus connection to the
airport and its close proximity to an international railway station.
The Luxexpo team has acquired vast
experience and knowledge to help you
organize any kind of event. The team does
not allow itself to remain complacent and

For more than thirty years, Luxexpo Exhibition and Conference
Centre has been the location of multiple trade and cultural fairs
and a variety of exhibitions for the general public or for professionals. The success of this large venue can be measured by the
many events organized by third parties: presentations, conferences, workshops, seminars, product launches and banquets that
ﬁll the calendar.
set in its ways. The most prominent example of their progressive thinking is the
construction of a new conference centre
(completion planned for 2013). Like so
many things in Luxembourg: 'Ça bouge!'
Until then, Luxexpo offers a total operational space of 35,000m2. Two restaurants
can accommodate up to 600 people. Conference facilities for 20 to 2000 delegates
and all technical equipment is up to date.
info@luxexpo.lu
www.luxexpo.lu

Luxexpo - Arcelor

MIM 45

MIM > LuXembourg > Accor

Soﬁtel and Novotel
Mixed Doubles

Soﬁtel Luxembourg Europe

Soﬁtel Luxembourg Le Grand Ducal

Soﬁtel Luxembourg Europe
As he told us, many VIPs have come here
before us to have a drink on the terrace,
have dinner in one of the restaurants, or
enjoy a nice cigar in the Havana Lounge.
The Venetian restaurant, Oro e Argento,
with an Italian chef was renovated this
Summer and was awarded 'Best Discovery' in Luxembourg for 2009 by Gastromania.
Maximilian explained that Soﬁtel’s new
concept for meetings, 'Inspired Meetings',
will provide themed packages to suit the
client. Every single element of the meeting reﬂects the same motif. Therefore
they work together with different partners
and event companies. The hotel also
has a good relationship with the nearby
Philharmonie, which is a good option for
people who are interested in an evening
programme. 'We want to proﬁle Soﬁtel
even more on the meeting market,' he
explained, 'so we now have a dedicated

MIM 46

The Accor group has a few tricks up its sleeve in Luxembourg, and
its latest addition - the Soﬁtel Luxembourg Le Grand Ducal - might
be the most stunning trick of them all, but our visit started in the
European district.
If your event is held in one of the venues on the Kirchberg plateau,
you can’t have many more convenient options than the two hotels
from the same group that lie next to each other, like brothers. The
Hotel Manager Maximilian Von Hochberg welcomed us in the Soﬁtel
Luxembourg Europe - 'one of only two ﬁve-star meeting hotels in
Luxembourg', he proudly announced - and invited us for a drink on
the terrace which is in the middle of an impressive atrium. This gave
us a magniﬁcent view of the hotel, since all of the 109 rooms are
built around it.

Novotel Luxembourg Centre

meeting planner who takes care of a
whole project from start to ﬁnish, more
or less as a consultant.The emphasis is
also on the quality of the gastronomy, and
we're proud that we're the hotel brand
with the most Michelin stars.'

Novotel Luxembourg Kirchberg
When you're not looking for 5-star luxury,
the adjacent Novotel deﬁnitely has its own
qualities. It has a brand-new main meeting
room, with 260 rooms newly renovated in
2009. They also have their own meeting approach with the Meeting@Novotel
offer and the 10 meeting rooms promise
nuremous possibilities, especially if you
consider the options you have at the
Soﬁtel just next door.

Novotel Luxembourg Centre
The same level of expertise can be found
in the four-star Novotel Luxembourg
Centre. Located in the city centre, and

Novotel Luxembourg Kirchberg

very convenient for those traveling via the
train station with its high-speed connections, the hotel can offer 150 guest rooms
and 7 meeting rooms.

Soﬁtel Luxembourg Le Grand Ducal
After our visit of the Soﬁtel and Novotel
on Kirchberg, we were treated to a glass
of champagne on the top-ﬂoor of the
5-star Soﬁtel Luxembourg Le Grand Ducal,
and they must have anticipated that we
were going to be enchanted by the view,
as we were so impressed that we even
stayed there for dinner. The experience
was not a disappointment, but we should
have known that beforehand, since the
menu is under the direction of the famed
chef Antoine Westermann. Equally as
impressive as the view and the food is the
design of this hotel. Although it is a hotel
with 128 rooms, it breathes a modern yet
cosy atmosphere.
www.accor.com

MIM > LuXembourg > Countryside

Countryside
An Adventurous Nature
A
Apart
from Luxembourg city, Kirchberg and the
Moselle region, the countryside of Luxembourg is
deﬁnitely worth mentioning. Drive away from the
busy roads and you'll ﬁnd yourself in a beautiful
green, hilly and perfectly peaceful environment which might be the ideal place for
your back-to-basics event with places like
Echternach, Château d'Urspelt, Château
de Vianden... If you want to explore the
more adventurous side of the countryside,
the guys at Parc Mamm'Out will deﬁnitely be
able to help you (see below).
Echternach lies at the very
center of the German-Luxembourg nature park. This is not
the only name by which this
sub-region is known. Other
names are: ‘Mullerthal’, valley
of the millers, because of the
numerous watermills, and
‘Luxembourg’s Little Switzerland’. Whatever you want to call
it, the region is alive with fauna
and ﬂora and is the perfect location for walking, cycling and
other more sporty or adventur-

ous incentives. Indeed, right at
the very gates of the town, one
can ﬁnd a grand recreational
park of 60 hectares: canoes,
sailing, surﬁng, ﬁshing, paddle
boating, mini-golf, …
The close proximity to Germany
makes Echternach and its surroundings especially interesting. Very recently, the region
has gained a multifunctional
venue, also available for congresses: Trifolion (see below).

'Over here the
mentality is
different and
more relaxed
than in the city'

Entrance of the castle

After a hard day's work we arrived in front of the driveway of the Château d'Urspelt late
in the evening - too late actually. We were heartily welcomed however, and were invited to
the restaurant for a sumptuous cold dish, which proved to be a sensible choice due to our
late arrival. The winding roads had taken us to a place that was peaceful and quiet and
the stately presence of the residence, the interior and the rooms exuded this same feeling. As the charming lady of the house, Diana Lodomez, says: 'This place has a soul. Over
here the mentality is different and more relaxed than in the city.' When she gave us a tour
around the property you could tell she was more than just proud - this is clearly not just a
hotel, it's a family estate!

Diana's father owns a successful construction company, F. Lodomez Constructions,
and he wanted to give something back to
the region, so he bought the deteriorated
estate in 2005. That's when his experience in the construction business came
in handy because they did everything
themselves, turning it into an authentic,
modern and comfortable château.
When it was restored, it ﬁrst served as a
holiday home available for families from
Friday to Monday. It only opened as a
hotel since October 2008 and received its
four stars in February. Now 14 people are
working on the estate. It has 29 rooms
but then there's also the impressive suite
that looks like it came straight from a
fairy-tale. Whoever needs to relax can
book a private session in the two wellness

rooms, one with a sauna and the other
with a hamam.
The restaurant opened in July and is
typical for the region. The one who
prepares the meat is the same person
who produced it. There are also several
meeting packages available. Everything is
possible, small or big, thanks to a number
of multipurpose rooms and the space that
is available in the separate reception area
in the same authentic style and with a
wooden-beam ceiling.
info@chateau-urspelt.lu
www.chateau-urspelt.lu

Mamm'Out

Typical teambuilding activity

Many adventurous teambuilding activities are artiﬁcial, but not so in the Luxembourg
Ardennes. It's really back to nature, hidden in the woods on the banks of the river
Wiltz where Mamm'Out's operating base lies. If you're in for some adventure, the
action takes place in three quarries: abseiling, crossing a rope bridge, rock climbing,
death ride and much more. For the less adventurous among us the environment is
also perfect for mountain biking, GPS search or hiking with a nature guide. After a
nice hard day of action it’s time to relax on the terrace and just enjoy the beauty of
nature. In Spring or Fall the ﬁreplace provides a cosy feeling and you can spend the
night in the Tipi Tents, the gite or another hotel accommodation. After your stay you’ll
be convinced that an active and exiting teambuilding gives your team the extra drive
and new energy they’ll need! All of this is organised by Axel Vosters together with the
Mamm’Out Team according to your wishes and the luxury level of your group.
info@mammout.be, www.mammout.be

MIM 48

MIM > LuXembourg

Trifolion,
Centre Culturel, Touristique et de Congrès
Echternach is a charming and picturesque
place surrounded by the craggy terrain,
thick forests and myriad streams that
gave the region the nickname ‘Little
Switzerland’. It’s also the oldest town
in Luxembourg, attested by its Roman
ruins, medieval fortiﬁcations and the
abbey-basilica at its centre. The town has
been the site of the ‘International Festival
Echternach’ since 1975. Overlooking the
abbey is the newly built ‘Trifolion, Centre
Culturel, Touristique et de Congrès’.
The ﬁve-storey Trifolion is a prime example of how contemporary architecture can
merge with the surrounding architecture
of times long gone. Large windows, high
ceilings and wooden panelling create an

atmosphere of peace and quiet for the
many concerts and congresses that ﬁll the
centre’s calendar.
The building has a congress hall with
a capacity for 700: the main naive has
comfortable ﬁxed seating while the side
galleries allow for ﬂexible seating – perfect for personal assistants, journalists,
etc. Moreover the side galleries allow
seated dinners prior to concerts. Special
cabins for interpreters are available for
simultaneous interpretation. The adjoining
auditorium has room for 300 and can be
arranged in whatever way you wish. This
room also sports an impressive round
gallery. The main welcome hall has a
surrounding gallery too as well as a star-

Events for you.
A webpage. It is new.
Click and suscribe.
You are lucky. Win a prize.
Congratulations.
www.pepperandsaltevents.com

Trifolion: culture and congress at the same place

dotted ceiling. Additional rooms of varying
size can be used for seminars, workshops
and smaller meetings.
In short, Trifolion is the place to meet if
you want to enrich your event with culture
and nature.
info@trifolion.lu
www.trifolion.lu